Pages

Tuesday, 24 May 2011

Lolly Log Cake

Me: "Oh, you said your sister knits hats? Is that what she's wearing in that picture?"

N-: "Yeah, she knits hats for herself."

A-: "Haha, that's like Hermione, she knits hats for house elves!"

Me: "No no, N- said that his sister knits hats for HERSELF, not HOUSE ELVES."

A-: "I know, I wasn't talking about his sister."

N-: "Well, I'm glad we cleared that up."

Completed unrelated to anything I'm making, but this is just to showcase... my stupidity?

Oh dear, exam week isn't looking good.

Also, if you are at Cambridge University, have exams, and are within cycling distance from me (sorry Girton/Homerton College people... and I may give preference to Economists, seeing as I feel your pain and all), thenI will deliver a slice of this to the pidgeonhole of the first 6 people to comment :) (on the blog, or on facebook, but if you do both that doesn't meant you get two slices!)

If you don't have exams, well, you can make your own :p

But before you all rush to your keyboards, this cake has a lot of coconut and malt biscuits in it, so I guess you should probably figure out if you like that first (it's a fridge cake, a bit like the chocolate digestive biscuit cake I made but with malt biscuits, shedloads of coconut, and even more condensed milk, and no chocolate) If you don't... at least there are sprinkles! Everyone likes sprinkles!

Only thing about them is that these Wilton sprinkles I have to import from America. They aren't expensive, but the shipping is :( So I'm just wondering if anyone knows where I can get these in the UK? Like multicoloured Millions? (Not hundreds and thousands, they aren't rainbow-ey enough).

So.... fairy hobmother, if you are reading this, I wouldn't mind a lifetime's supply of rainbow sprinkles... :)

Oh, and a Mercedes SLK too, if you don't mind.

*******This cake is from a new cookbook I got: "A World of Cake". I really like it. It has pretty pictures. From around the world. And it's shiny. I'll waffle more about it when my exams are over.

This cake's from New Zealand. It's pretty :)

Only problem I had with this was all the measurements were US measurements, i.e. cups and sticks and spoons and all that jazz. I had no idea how to convert them, as it's all in volume and not weight, so a cup of crushed biscuits isn't the same as a cup of butter (can anyone tell me how much 4 cups of crushed biscuits is in grams? It would be much appreciated - I'll update the recipe to UK measurements once I figure them out myself!)

So DON'T do what I did and just bung 'sort of 4 cups of biscuits' in a bowl (I used 200g - is that too little?) with the butter and condensed milk, and then expect the consistency to be fine. I didn't put in anywhere near 4 cups, I have no idea what I did but it was too runny, so I had to go out and get more biscuits to add.

Also because I ate quite a few of the biscuits before I added the butter to it. That may explain a bit...

Even so, it didn't really roll. Not into a log anyway, more like a squidge. Somehow 'Lolly Squidge Cake' doesn't have the same ring to it.

1 cup rainbow sprinkle nonpareils (or however much you can afford to import on a student budget)

1 cup marshmallows and JELLY BABIES!

½ cup desiccated coconut

Buttercream, to stick things together

Crush the biscuits. They don't need to be a fine dust, some pieces can be left partially crushed to give the cake a nicer texture. Mix in cinnamon.

Warm the butter and condensed milk in the microwave for 30 seconds until the butter is very soft. Then whip it like crazy.

Mix the fruit puffs with the crushed biscuits, add the butter and condensed milk. Mix well.

Scoop up the mixture and roll it into a log shape, or take small amounts and roll into little balls.

Mix together the nonpareils and spread the mix over a work surface. Spread a thin coat of buttercream over the log. Roll the log in the mixture, pressing a coating into the surface (or you could do what I did and smush it on with your hands – more messy but you get to lick off the mess like a 5 year old).

Spoon the remaining buttercream on top of the lop in a thick strip. Press jelly babies and marshmallows into it, and coat with coconut.

Place on a tray in the refrigerator and wait for it to harden for about 3 hours. Put plastic wrap over the tray to keep the lolly cake moist.

Cut cake while its still cold before it warms up again (otherwise it will turn into a squidge, like it did in my photo).

hahaha! nice conversation! I've read the series, twice! That's a beautiful log cake, looks so colourful and cute! Wilton's stuff are very expensive over here, just bought a bundt pan which cost a hole in my pocket but a smile on my face!Have a lovely day!

LOL @ Lolly Squidge cake & hats for house elves :D What a hilarious post, Xinmei! That cake sure looks yummy... I love gummy candies!!! I wish I lived cycling distance from you & studied economics! I wish I could help you with the sprinkles or the measurements, but I am in the same boat most of the time! Always figuring out conversions & trying to source ingredients :) Thanks for sharing!

i love sprinkles. recipe looks sooo yummy. i'm sure it will cheer up those who are studying!!! i want to visit cambridge university one day~~~ :) i have that same problem too but the other way around! i'm so used to measurements in cups, tablespoons, etc. :) i use a kitchen food scale to measure in grams for small items and i downloaded an iphone app with measurement conversions for bigger food items hehehe. hope that helps dear!

This is soooo cute Xinmei! I wonder why it's New Zealand.. anyway. I totally understand the difficulty of US measurement. It's so hard to convert etc. Why don't we all use gram for cooking! Life would be much easier. Though sometimes American baking/cooking is easy. 1 cup of this and that. Very rough amount. But I think it's not good for fine cooking/baking....you could end up with two different things if you don't measure perfectly. Anyway, I love your lolly log cake!

I love that you too sometimes eat the ingredients you're baking before the bake comes together-I've lost count of the number of times I've made a mad dash to the shop mid bake having eaten the key ingredients 'accidently'! You could try sugarshack online for sprinkles? Good luck with the revising!

I know Urban Outfitters home department and Waitrose had measuring cups not so long ago! don't know if that helps? It is very confusing!!! (Ps. the urban outfitters ones are very cute! They look like cupcakes and fit inside each other like russian dolls :))

Cake looks SO sugary! Who needs red bull to keep you up during exams when you could just have a slice of that :D

Haha, good attempt at the cake! At least your decor was A+. How so unfortunate that I'm not within your cycling distance, otherwise I could have a slice of this in exchange for a large tub of sprinkles... (and no, no SLK, sorry. I'm still waiting for my straight, fairy Godhusband to deliver that too!).

First off I LOVE your blog title, it's adorable and totally suits your site! I am very impressed so far with everything I've seen, and I admit I looked through a lot everything looks wonderful! I found your site through the Harried Cook, she spoke so highly of you I had to stop by and I can see why your site is so popular! I am now following (and liking your facebook fan page) and just added you to my recommended blogs on my site. =]

Just found your blog! Love it!! This looks delicious, I love the Wilton multicoloured sprinkles you can get from the states, i always make sure to majorly stock up whenever I go over there, wish they did them in the UK!

That's a very colourful cake :-) I stumble upon your blog and I find Nami here too :-)

Isn't student life fun? We, at Baking Devils are having our first ever meeting of the Cambridge Food Network where we are hoping to get all food bloggers/ foodies in the business together to network/ mingle over a cuppa and cake...